June 5th, 2003 issue #0222

Art Baugher has known Jesse Sheckler virtually all his life. Baugher knew that his cousin adamantly opposed illegal drugs, and yet, when WVIR-TV Channel 29 reported that police had found cocaine at Sheckler's house, Baugher believed it.
"I never knew you couldn't believe the news," says Baugher, two years later. Today, he calls himself "naïve."

One sidelight– or sideshow perhaps– of the $10 million defamation verdict involves confusion over which reporter may have cried– or lied.
In the trial, U.S. Attorney Bruce Pagel testified that he'd met with a reporter who told his legal assistant that he'd given her permission to look at the investigative file for the criminal case. He says he gave no such permission, and when he called the reporter on the alleged deception, she "lost her composure," cried, and mentioned that her grandmother had just died.